I have made a decision.
For more than three years – 179 weeks to be exact – I have posted a new blog every Saturday morning. I made a promise to myself that I would not miss one single week and I have kept that promise.
It hasn’t always been easy. There have been many weeks when I have stared desperately at my blank monitor hoping for divine inspiration only to have the monitor stare back at me as if to say, “It ain’t my problem.”
It was knowing how crushing the disappointment of letting myself down would be that prevented me from quitting those many, many times when I found myself struggling to come up with a topic for that week’s blog.
And so this week I made a decision.
I have succumbed to the pressure and the time has come for me to … write a second blog.
Over the past year or so I have written a number of postings that have highlighted and focused on extraordinary people. People who I have had the privilege of meeting and, in some cases working with, who have overcome enormous challenges and adversity in their lives and have become dynamic and inspiring role models for what is possible for the rest of us.
As I have reviewed their stories I have been struck by the differences, by the diverse ways in which they set about dramatically and permanently changing their lives. They all started at different points in their lives and all employed various strategies to move from where they were to where they are today.
And yet there was one thing they all had in common. The one thing they all did that culminated in the powerful and joyful lives they are presently enjoying.
What they did was they acquired new habits.
The dictionary defines a habit as 1. an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. 2. customary practice or use.
There is a wonderful quote that I have used in these pages that is attributed to Aristotle who said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”
My new blog which is called “Habits cause Have Its” will focus on, and address, the many different habits that people who have brought great success into their lives have adopted as part of their lifestyle.
Most of the results in our lives come from repetition – from us doing the same things over and over again. Doing the same thing over and over again results in us having what we have today. For example, those of us who have a weight “problem” typically have arrived there because we have acquired (and worked very hard at) the habit of eating the wrong foods in the wrong quantities and/or living sedentary, inactive lives. We do this repeatedly therefore this is one of our habits.
We refer to this as lifestyle and lifestyle simply means our habit of repeatedly doing the same things.
In order to bring any change into our lives we must acquire new habits. In order to produce different results we must begin doing different things and do them over and over again. We are all familiar with the wonderful adage, reputedly by Henry Ford, that reminds us that, “If you always do what you’ve always done you will always get what you’ve always got.”
So I am adding a new habit to my lifestyle. Commencing next week on January 9th I will be posting a new piece each Wednesday.
My intention is to focus on one particular habit for 2 or 3 weeks. I will be asking you, my readers, to contribute guest blogs if you have adopted new habits that have profoundly and positively influenced your life and I will attempt to meet with, and write about, fascinating people who have transformed their lives by changing their habits.
I’m extremely interested in hearing from you as to whether you think this is a good idea or yet another of my less than bright ones. Please send me an email at rael@raelkalley.com with your thoughts.
I hope you will join me on this journey. If you would like to subscribe to my new blog, please click here.
I will, of course, continue to write this blog each Saturday. If you have any thoughts for a topic I would love to hear from you.
Till we read again.
